EU pushes back deforestation law by a year after outcry from global producers

BRUSSELS — The European Union agreed to delay by a year the introduction of new rules to ban the sale of products that lead to massive deforestation, caving in to demands from several producer nations from across the globe and domestic opposition within the 27-nation bloc. Officials said Wednesday that the EU member states, the EU parliament and the executive Commission reached an agreement in principle following weeks of haggling whether the initial rules would have to be watered down even further than the simple delay by one year. The lead negotiator among the different EU institutions, Christine Schneider, called the delay to implement nature protection rules “a victory,” adding it would give foresters and farmers protection from “excessive bureaucracy.” Environmentalists immediately criticized the move. “With our planet’s forests destroyed further every day, we cannot afford delays to much-needed environmental protection laws like the EU’s anti-deforestation legislation,” said said Giulia Bondi of the Global Witness group.. Officials from leading exporters of affected commodities — including Brazil, Indonesia and the Ivory Coast — fear the regulation could act as a trade barrier, hit small farmers and disrupt supply chains. Even if that was not agreed to in the current deal, Schneider said that the commission had “committed itself to updating the Deforestation Law within a year.” Greenpeace has said that the extension would condemn the world’s forests to another year of destruction.